BCA Updates CPR Guidance

Specifiers looking for the latest Construction Products Regulation (CPR) guidance can now download the British Cables Association’s paper Construction Products Regulation and Cables – UK position from its newly updated website.

The paper, as well as the BCA’s Guidance for Specifiers document, has been updated to reflect concerns and questions raised by specifiers over Reaction to Fire cables and which Class should be achieved for each installation.

Construction Products Regulation for cables came into effect last year, and over the past nine months the BCA has received numerous enquiries from specifiers looking for clarification on this issue.

Unlike many other EU countries, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), charged with responsibility here, has said that the UK has no legislation to determine the level of performance required for Reaction to Fire cable.

Although amendments to The Building Regulations 2010, and especially to Approved Document B, may happen in the light of Dame Judith Hackitt’s report, it is most unlikely to lead to any prescriptive legal requirement on Reaction to Fire for cables.

The choice of performance level, which is expressed in terms of Classes, is therefore a matter for designers and specifiers who are free to make their own decisions if it reflects the demands of other applicable regulations.

The BCA’s guide explains the general nature of the range available so that specifiers have an awareness of the types and their terminology.

From July 1 2017, it became compulsory for cables, with a Reaction to Fire performance and intended for permanent installation in buildings and constructions works, to be accompanied by a Declaration of Performance (DoP) and have CE marking.